David Zindell

Template:Short description Template:Infobox writer David Zindell (born November 28, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer.

Writing career

Zindell's first published story was "The Dreamer's Sleep" in Fantasy Book in 1984. His novelette "Shanidar" won the Writers of the Future contest in 1985 and gave rise to his first novel, Neverness (1988), a science fiction epic. It was followed by a sequel trilogy called A Requiem for Homo Sapiens (1992-1998). In 2023 he added a new book to the Neverness universe called The Remembrancer's Tale.

The Neverness universe has been hailed as Dune for the 1990s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Human civilization has explored and settled the galaxy using ships that interface a pilot's mind to the mathematical underpinnings of the physical universe. Artificial intelligences live as super-intelligent gods running on clusters of moon-sized computer brains. Humans have modified themselves to create a tapestry of religions and philosophies that interweave with alien cultures to amplify human potential and seek transcendence. The books often employ anthropological and ecological perspectives to examine the nature of consciousness, memory and evolution.

Zindell's fantasy epic The Ea Cycle (2001-2007) examines the evolution of consciousness through the struggle between good and evil, exploring themes of empathy, morality, war and fate. The plot concerns a prince named Valashu Elahad searching for a relic called the Lightstone to stop the immortal Morjin, Lord of Lies, who seeks to create a world filled with madness.

In 2015 he published Splendor, a memoir. In 2017 he published The Idiot Gods, a novel told from the point of view of killer whales, which are sapient. It is the first of the Xanayan series, followed by If I Am God in 2024 and The Woman and the Whale in 2025.

Zindell's work has been translated into German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian and Italian.

Reception and themes

John Clute wrote that Zindell was a "romantic, ambitious, and skilled" writer.<ref name="Clute, John 1368">Clute, John: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, page 1368. Orbit, 1993</ref>

New Scientist wrote that: ‘David Zindell writes of interstellar mathematics in poetic prose that is a joy to read’<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and that he presents ‘A disturbing vision of the impending collapse of a transgalactic society…the ideas are hard SF with philosophical undertones, and the story is compelling. Zindell makes you think’.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Zindell has described his style as an attempt to communicate the connectedness of things, the connection between mysticism and evolution, and the possibilities of life,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and his fiction as an attempt to heal false dichotomies such as materialism and spirituality.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Zindell was born in Toledo, Ohio, and resides today in Boulder, Colorado, where he works as a test coach;<ref name="David Zindell Coaching">Template:Cite webTemplate:Title missing</ref> he received a BA in mathematics and minored in anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder.<ref>Charles N. Brown. "David Zindell: Back to Roots" (excerpt), Locus 44:6, No. 473 (June 2000). Retrieved 2000-09-07.</ref>

Publications

Fiction

Neverness universe

• "Shanidar", Writers of the Future (March 1985); online reprint at infinity plus
• Neverness (New York: D. I. Fine, 1988)
• A Requiem for Homo Sapiens (trilogy):
  • The Broken God (HarperCollins, 1992); US ed., Bantam, 1994
  • The Wild (Harper Voyager, 1995); US ed., Bantam, 1996
  • War in Heaven (Voyager, Bantam, 1998)
• The Remembrancer's Tale (Harper Voyager, 2023)

Ea Cycle

• The Lightstone (London: Harper Voyager, August 2001), (Tor Books, June 2006), also published as two volumes, The Ninth Kingdom (June 2006) and The Silver Sword (Voyager, 2002, Tor, 2887) and again together as The Lightstone: The Complete Novel (2022)
• Lord of Lies (Voyager, 2003); US ed., Tor, 2008
• Black Jade (Voyager, 2005); released in U.S. only as e-book
• The Diamond Warriors (Voyager, 2007); released in U.S. only as e-book

Xanayan Novels

• The Orca's Song (originally published as The Idiot Gods, Harper Voyager, July 2017)
• If I am God (Harper Voyager, 2024)
• The Woman and the Whale (forthcoming)

Collections

• Shanidar and Other Stories (Bhodi Books, 2020)

Short fiction

• "The Dreamer's Sleep", Fantasy Book, December 1984
• "Shanidar", L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, 1985
• "Caverns", Interzone (UK), Winter 1985/86
• "When the Rose Is Dead", Full Spectrum 3, June 1991
• "Martian Compassion", The War of the Worlds: Fresh Perspectives, 2005
• "The Tiger", Shanidar and Other Stories, 2020

Nonfiction

• Read This (1994)
• Splendor – A Memoir (Bhodi Books, 2015)

External links

• Template:Official website
• David Zindell on Goodreads
• A Chat with David Zindell (Part 1 of 2) and A Chat with David Zindell (Part 2 of 2), an interview on Tales From The Bridge
• David Zindell on Mathematics in 'Neverness', an interview on The Science in The Fiction
• Marty and Holly on Books by David Zindell, Sue Burke and Cory Doctorow on The Science in The Fiction
• Storm of Numbers, Chalice of Light, an interview on Infinity Plus
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